Respatializing Federalism in the Horn’s Borderlands: From Contraband Control to Transnational Governmentality

Daniel K. Thompson

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2022, vol. 37, issue 2, 295-316

Abstract: Analysts documenting the proliferation of border controls amidst the global War on Terror have highlighted recent extensions of state sovereignty into new geographies. Such shifts are largely driven by Western states’ security concerns as they partner with governments in Africa and other migrant-sending spaces to stem migration. In eastern Ethiopia, however, new dynamics of border securitization have facilitated African politicians’ efforts to extend governance in the opposite direction. This article traces how authorities in Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State (SRS) between 2010 and 2018 instrumentalized the decentralization of border control in attempts to both address the persistence of “contraband” border trade and tax evasion, and solve a longstanding security problem: opposition activities among diaspora Somalis. Theoretically connecting a “borderlands as resources” framework to conceptions of transnational governmentality, this study analyzes how the governance of trade at national and subnational borders may enable efforts to regulate diaspora groups.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08865655.2021.1943494 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjbsxx:v:37:y:2022:i:2:p:295-316

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjbs20

DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2021.1943494

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Borderlands Studies is currently edited by Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, Henk van Houtum and Martin van der Velde

More articles in Journal of Borderlands Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().